Thursday, October 27, 2011

Digital Marketing for the Millennial Generation

Mashable has a great post today on tips for marketing to the millennial generation (17-34 year olds): http://mashable.com/2011/10/27/marketing-millennials-digital-natives/.

I found this post to be particularly interesting as I think that many of the stratgies described as the current best practices for this generation will become (and quickly are becoming) best practices for a much wider swath of the population. As consumers continue to purchase and adopt more digital devices (smartphones, tablets, blackberry for work, laptop for home, etc.) and become more and more plugged in to mobile content, I believe these best practices trends will easily start to extend into the 34-45 year old category and beyond, and certainly to the next generation of children.

Of the particular trends the writer highlights, I would reiterate the importance of the following: an overwhelming degree of multi-tasking, a need and desire for engagement and involvement in brands and consumer products (rather than passively watching TV commercials), the power of social media communities and interactions, the importance of search and SEO, and a constant yearning for the newest and next best thing.

The one trend that the writer touches on and which I believe will be crucial for digital marketers, is the need for curated and condensed content tailored for the particular user. The better digital marketers can figure out a way to provide users with valuable and tailored content, the more successful they will be as we continue to be more and more satured as consumers and the internet becomes more fragmented and overwhelming by the hour. This is underlined by the importance of search but also in tailored advertising content and in particular I believe that digital marketers want to find those sites that are opinion-leaders in curating and condensing news, trends, events, etc. to keep us consumers up to speed. These types of sites, in my opinion, will be a huge draw in the coming years and in the next phase of the internet.

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